The Deep South revisited at KKK trial

[bemildred]

Source: Telegraph.UK

Forty three years after Ku Klux Klansmen allegedly abducted, beat and drowned two young black men, two of the gang stared at each other across a courtroom yesterday as one broke the Klan's most precious oath and gave evidence against the other.

United not only by their past but also by their need to wear court-supplied hearing aids, James Ford Seale and Charles Edwards both affected a studied nonchalance to their alleged crimes as the latter recounted how they pounced on two local 19-year-olds on the slimmest of pretexts after hearing that black radicals were smuggling guns into Mississippi.

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A copy of the constitution of the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan of Mississippi was read out in court, despite defence objections that it would "arouse the prejudice" of jurors.

In it, members swear to such things as to "remain constantly alert to the satanic forces of evil" and to "die to preserve the spirit of Christian civilisation".

Read more: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/06/06/wklan106.xml

[maddezmom]

1. Preacher’s daughter recalls run-ins with Klan

Preacher’s daughter recalls run-ins with Klan

By Jerry Mitchell
[e-mail]


The daughter of an African-American preacher whose church was searched in 1964 by Klansmen and law enforcement looking for guns testified today about the climate of fear in Franklin County then.

The futile search for guns in the church came after two African-American teens reportedly abducted by Klansmen came up with the story to stop their repeated beating in the Homochitto National Forest.

Reputed Klansman James Ford Seale is on trial in U.S. District Court in Jackson charged in connection with that crime. Seale, a 71-year-old former cropduster from Roxie, has pleaded not guilty.

Henry Hezekiah Dee and Charles Eddie Moore, both 19, were abducted in Meadville on May 2, 1964, taken to the forest where they were beaten and then drowned in the old Mississippi River near Tallulah, La.

more:http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070607/NEWS/70607030

[maddezmom]

2. Judge bars informant’s statements in Seale trial

James Ford Seale (left) is helped from a Madison County Sheriff's Department transport van as he arrives at the James O. Eastland Federal Courthouse in Jackson today where testimony will continue in his trial on federal kidnapping and conspiracy charges in connection with the May 2, 1964, abductions, beatings and killings of Henry Hezekiah Dee and Charles Eddie Moore. Seale has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

A federal judge ruled this morning that jurors cannot hear statements by a now-deceased FBI informant about the Ku Klux Klan’s abduction, beatings and killings of two African-American teens in 1964 that implicates James Ford Seale.

The 71-year-old former cropduster from Roxie is on trial on kidnapping and conspiracy charges in connection with the May 2, 1964, slayings of Henry Hezekiah Dee and Charles Eddie Moore. Seale has pleaded not guilty.

U.S. District Judge Henry Wingate, who last month had ruled against admitting statements made by former Klansman Ernest Gilbert, again barred the evidence.

He revisited his earlier ruling after Gilbert’s statements were mentioned Tuesday during cross-examination of a prosecution witness, former Klansman Charles Marcus Edwards. Prosecutors had argued that opened the door for them to be admitted.

However, prosecutors won a victory with another Wingate ruling. The judge agreed to allow them to enter into evidence a Nov. 6, 1964, FBI report that contains a statement from Edwards, admitting he was involved in the beatings but saying Dee and Moore left the forest alive.

more:http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070607/NEWS/70607016